NJ to Spend $8.5M to Demolish Buildings

"The funds are an essential component of our efforts to promote safety and revitalize communities," Gov. James McGreevey said in announcing the release of the money. "The funding will provide for the demolition of buildings that are jeopardizing safety and hindering progress on redevelopment plans."

The money is coming from the state's Demolition Bond Loan Program, a $20 million revolving loan fund established in a 1996 referendum. The program, which is run by the state's Department of Community Affairs, authorizes low-interest loans ranging from zero to 4% for up to 20 years.

"We're helping people rid their neighborhoods of dangerous eyesores and clear a path for redevelopment," according to new DCA commissioner Susan Bass Levin, who until recently was the mayor of Cherry Hill, NJ. "We're eliminating blight. In selecting projects for demolition, we give priority to sites that represent an extreme hazard and fall within the boundaries of an approved redevelopment plan."

Not surprisingly, the state's three most troubled large cities-Camden, Trenton and Newark – will get the lion's share of the money, just under $4.9 million combined. In contrast, the state's second largest municipality, Jersey City, is not among the 13 on the list, apparently owning to the fact that it has already carved out a successful redevelopment effort.

The city of Trenton is getting just under $2.2 million to tear down 83 targeted buildings, while Camden follows with just over $1.6 million to raze more than 100 structures. Newark's share of just over $1.05 million will be used on 72 buildings, many of them in the "ground zero" of another catastrophe, the riots of the late '60s, which laid waste to the Central Ward. Local officials already have big plans for a site occupied by several of the targeted buildings – they're talking to Home Depot about a store.

Not everyone is happy with the plans. While Irvington, NJ has major redevelopment hopes, its $825,000 share will go to tear down 30 or so scattered single-family wood frame homes, damaged by fire, that jeopardize adjacent homes. In contrast, Hillside will get only $100,000 for three buildings, but one of them is a 12-years-abandoned handbag factory situated on a prime redevelopment site.

Other cities on the list include three Jersey Shore cities with high redevelopment hopes – Asbury Park, Long Branch and Keansburg. Elsewhere, Bayonne, Bridgeton, Carteret, Orange and Peterson round out the list.